What Have You Learned from the Blogging Experience?

I ask you, my humble readers, a lot of questions, motivating you to think about how you blog, why you blog, and what your blog is for. Now I ask you a very important question.

What have you learned from the blogging experience?

So, what have you learned?

What have you learned about web design, web development, blog administration, and the administrative side of blogging? Have you learned more than you want to know about CSS, XHTML, accessibility, web standards, PHP, PHPMyAdmin, MySQL, layout, structure, and are little bits of code dancing in your head?

What have you learned about browsers that you didn’t want to know before? Have you learned about how they are different and similar and what works and doesn’t work in web page design? What have you learned about how they help, or hinder, your blogging and Internet experience? Have you improved your web browsing and blog reading through your browser, discovered the magic of feeds, and found other helpful tools for your browser, an integral part of accessing your blog and the web?

Have you learned some shortcuts to make the process easier? Little tricks to make your Internet browser or feed reader gather the information you want to blog about and research faster and easier? How about entering information into your blog? Any tricks in the process, or maybe with the blog web page design or administration panel structure and layout that makes the whole blogging experience much simpler?

What have you learned about writing a blog? About finding stories and things to write about? About digging through Digg, del.icio.us, Yahoo News, and Google? Is it easier or harder to keep finding things to blog about? And when you find it, how do you keep track of what you want to blog about and your research notes?

Do you find that you usually write off the top of your head or are you spending more time researching your blog posts? How much time do you spend researching and checking your blog post data and facts? Or do you even check? Is it important to check?

What have you learned about your language and the way words come together to make your point and express yourself? Has your writing improved or slid even further downhill?

Has your thought process about what you write and how you write changed at all? Do you feel yourself writing more about cultural, political or worldly issues, or more about yourself, your life, and your perspective of your life?

How has your blogging changed since you began? Was it all about the pretty website and pretty words and now it’s about the serious words no matter what the site looks like? Does the flow of ideas and writing posts come easily or much harder since you began? Is it easier or harder to confront your Write Post screen?

Do you feel inspired by the blogging experience, and want to blog more, or is your interest starting to wane? What do you think helps keep you blogging?

What have you learned about the blogging process itself? From blogging and from reading other people’s blogs? What do you think the “state of the Blogosphere” is today compared to when you started? What do you think of your competition? Is there more or less?

And most of all, what have you learned about yourself through the blogging process? Has blogging helped you “find yourself” or become “more centered”? Has blogging improved your communication skills, satisfied some need for attention or fame, or added some new element to your life?

Maybe even ask yourself if blogging changed you or you changed blogging?

So, answer the question. What have you learned from the blogging experience?

5 Comments

So far, the most important lesson I’ve learned is that I need to avoid certain types of posts. For instance, I don’t write very good reviews, so I’ve decided that my blog will not include reviews of books I’m reading. I’m much better at taking what I read and using it as a starting point for what *I* want to say, much like you described in your post about what you do when you can’t think of something to write. I’ve also learned that I’m not very good at strictly informational/news type posts. A few weeks ago, I wanted to write a blog post about the Afghan Christian who was on trial, gathering information from a variety of sources and packaging it for my readers. It was awful, and I ended up scrapping that and doing something completely different. This has been really good for me, because learning what my weak points are as a writer has helped me to see what my strong points are as well, and I know how to make my blog different from the competition by doing what I do best.–Dan

I have learnt a lot of things since I started blogging a year ago. I have learnt to use more precise words which can represent what I say in a better way. I have learnt to manipulate Blogger, Yahoo! 360 and WordPress softwares and in this process, I have learnt a little bit of HTML too. I have learnt more things about blog promotion, syndication etc. And because of the nature of my blog, I have learnt to view an issue from different perspectives before giving my point of view.

Simply put, there are way too many things I ahve learnt from blogging which can’t be explained here in a commnet–probably there are things which I have learnt but I don’t consciously know!

Anyhow, this post was especially nice because it got my thinking hat tuned into this particular direction. I had never happened to think of my learnings on the cyberspace.

Interesting question!
With only a month or so of doing this, I have learned a few important things:

1. Blog content gets indexed and found REALLY FAST. So, Dooce’s suggestion to think of the one person who you would not want to read what you’re about to publish, knowing that he/she will find your post, is very relevant.

2. For long I’ve struggled with the idea that if I’m going to write, I better add some value to the blogosphere. However, I calculate it will take months before I get 10 regular readers among family and friends, and it will probably take years before I get 10 regular readers among people who don’t know me. So, I’ve learned that I’m no longer interested or worried about the value I’m contributing to strangers. It’s just a blog among millions, and if 10 friends of relatives read me at least to know what’s going on with us, great.

Since I started blogging, three people in my circle have started as well… They write personal entries, and I’ve found that I love to read them. So, I’ve recently gotten a new appreciation for personal blogs (at least those of people I know), and finally have decided that if mine becomes that and it’s only written for a small audience, it’s okay with me. I don’t have to be famous. Now, I seriously mean that.

I’ve learned that the blogosphere is filled with political blogs that do more smashing of their own heads against the wall than proving points. That’s why I stopped writing most of my political commentary, and, when I do, I do it more on a perspective of morality than on politics in general. (Since I’m of the belief that all the major sides of American politics are seriously lacking in that department.) This also saves me a lot of headaches from the users who are mainly just interesting in starting a debate. We all know how those can be never-ending.

1.I’ve learned to organize my thoughts and to be disciplined writing on regular basis, contibuting to the blogosphere.
2.Blogging also helped me improve my knowledge and understanding of the issues related to my niche.